This site is about my own coming to grips with gender identity, things that interest me, and plots of cetaceans such as porpoises to take over the world.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Intellectuals are a danger to the church

Well, the move is two days a way and while I didn't have time to do what I wanted to do which was research some of the whackier untruths about Mormonism and post some of the whacky truths, I may be able to scrape together a short piece for this weeks Carnival of the Veil.

I'm not even going to take the easy way out and talk about Jeffrey Nielsen's firing from BYU for speaking out on gay marriage. It's an issue I don't oppose, but don't campaign for, either. Besides, I'm sure everything will work out all right for Professor Nielsen since the story attracted national attention.

No, instead I think I'll wonder why intellectuals would be a danger to the church. Of course, this comes from the stupid quotes of Boyd K. Packer file, and perhaps I should let it go since it's years since he said "Feminists, homosexuals, and so-called intellectuals are a danger to the church."

It would be one thing if this was just said and let go, but the church has a habit of discommunicating people who write truthfully about it. In recent years they tried to excommunicate someone for claiming that Native Americans had no Semitic DNA (and why is this a surprise to anyone?) and they disfellowshipped Grant Palmer for writing An Insider's View of Mormon Origins.

Unlike feminists and homosexuals, who as far as I can tell represent no real danger to the church even from his confused viewpoint, I think intellectuals who write and research honestly about the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They've unfortunately backed themselves into a corner by demanding black and white thinking of the members and if they dared let the truth go out instead of what they feed the faithful, there'd be many questions.

Strangely, what I don't see is any sort of preparation for the eventual release of the information. It wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that an organization has a less than stellar history and that not every member was a Saint (in the Catholic sense, not the Mormon sense.) No, instead they still attack the messengers.

There are those out there who might have stayed in the church if it were honest about its history. The church might lose a few members if it suddenly came out and revealed that not all the details of the Joseph Smith story were entirely accurate, but I think the vast majority would continue to stay either for cultural or social reasons. As it is, they only anger those who find out about the real history doing simple web searches (well, I don't know how simple they are, a lot of information about Mormonism is misleading and you have to sort out the crap on both sides.)

Now, can someone tell me why feminists or homosexuals are a danger to this organization? He's lost me on that one.